▶ USAGE It was formerly considered correct to use may rather than can when referring to permission as in: you may use the laboratory for your experiments, but this use of may is now almost entirely restricted to polite questions such as: may I open the window? The use of may with if in constructions such as: your analysis may have been more credible if … is generally regarded as incorrect, might being preferred: your analysis might have been more credible if …

Example sentences containing 'may'

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You may have to use toughlove and stop or limit her seeing these new friends. The Sun (2016)This may help to explain our result. Times, Sunday Times (2016)That may have been true when most jobs were boring and tiring. Times, Sunday Times (2017)Shoppers may alsoface long queues at collection points. The Sun (2016)Those that have survived one crossing may well then die during a second. Times, Sunday Times (2017)The results may not be a surprise. Times, Sunday Times (2017)You may use it to provide information to your employee. Christianity Today (2000)My advice line on thrilling a woman in bed may help. The Sun (2006)The same may well be true this time. Times, Sunday Times (2010)Yet one may wager that some new answers may not be long in coming. The Times Literary Supplement (2013)The luckier ones may have been killedoutright by this or the shrapnel. Times, Sunday Times (2014)This unlikelycouple may have something in common. The Sun (2008)You may want to go for a gentlerun to loosen the muscles and calm the nerves. The Sun (2013)Such an increase may come from either or both of two sources. A Conceptual View of Human Resource Management: Strategic Objectives, Environments,
FunctionsThe resulting welfareobligations may put an intolerablestrain on future generations. Times, Sunday Times (2012)But we may use its origins as a reason to hang on to it.Atkinson, Jacqueline M Coping with Stress at Work (1988)He may help us to buy the car. Times, Sunday Times (2008)That may or may not be true. Times, Sunday Times (2014)Thus a man may encounter a long run of badluck in hunting.Sanderson, Stephen K. Macrosociology: An Introduction to Human Societies (1995)Only one applicationmethod may be used. The Sun (2015)There just may be something in this soberclubbing. Times, Sunday Times (2010)You may say it's a coup. Times, Sunday Times (2009)Music teachers may say one thing; the school in general may say another.Evans, Andrew The Secrets of Musical Confidence (1994)